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Posted on 05/19/2025 8:26:00 PM PDT by Morgana
Movies with violent, sexual, or demonic content are going to have an impact on people’s hearts, even if they are unaware of that impact, says Promise Keepers CEO Shane Winnings. Winnings joined ChurchLeaders for an interview about the response he has gotten to a video he made warning people against going to see the upcoming horror movie, “Him.”
“Before I was a born-again Christian, I might’ve been really interested in this. There’s something in people that wants to, you know, see something scary or something dark,” said Winnings. “There’s this fascination with the demonic. And I really wanted to use that trailer as a chance to teach people, ‘Hey, what you let in your ear and your eye gate actually matters. It affects your heart. It affects your mind.’”
Shane Winnings Warns Christians About ‘Him’
Shane Winnings is a military veteran, a former law enforcement officer, and the chairman and CEO of the longstanding men’s ministry, Promise Keepers. On April 27, he posted a video to his social media warning people not to go see a new horror movie titled, “Him,” starring Marlon Wayans and co-produced by Jordan Peele. The movie is set to come out this September, and a description of the film says it portrays “a chilling journey into the inner sanctum of fame, idolatry and the pursuit of excellence at any cost.”
A teaser trailer for the movie is out, and Winnings observed it seems at first to portray “an interesting-looking football movie.” Then the trailer “takes a really dark turn” and gets “more and more demonic.” It ends showing a figure covered in blood standing on a pentagram with his arms outstretched, calling to mind Jesus on the cross, as the word “him” appears on the screen.
“It just felt so dark,” said Winnings, who explained that he felt compelled to speak out about the movie in part because Wayans and Peele are well-known. Another reason is that Winnings used to be fascinated by such movies himself, and he wanted to warn people that the content they consume does affect them.
Some people agreed with and thanked Winnings for his warning, but others pushed back and said that the movie does not appear to be glorifying evil but to be showing the consequences of evil.
“Let’s be honest,” said Winnings. “If they didn’t really embellish and really lean into the dark side, it would probably be a boring movie.” He mentioned that some people who disagreed with him pointed out that “the Bible’s really dark.”
“The Bible is not blasphemous,” Winnings countered. “And when you’re showing a guy standing on the pentagram doing that, when you begin to cross over the realm of educating into entertaining, using demonic stuff, that’s where I draw the line.”
“And so for me, I didn’t see this as an educational piece,” he said. “Could there be a lesson in it? Sure. There’s lessons in, you know, almost everything that people produce.”
“But this is not an educational piece of film by any means,” Winnings said. “It’s an entertainment piece. And I’m trying to warn people to say, ‘Don’t go get entertained and fascinated by dark things.’ And I think that’s what’s going to happen.”
Another pushback people gave Winnings (who made a follow-up video on the subject) was that it was just entertainment and that he was making a big deal out of simply watching a movie.
“It says in the Psalms, ‘I will set no vile thing before my eyes.’ And I think that we give ourselves way too much credit for how much control we have over our bodies,” said Winnings, “and not just our bodies, but like our heart and our mind. I see this all the time. People say, ‘Well, it doesn’t affect me. You know, I can watch all this stuff and it doesn’t affect me.’”
“I highly disagree with that,” he said. “As someone who has been to war, who has been a cop—I have seen human beings blown up, I have seen human beings chopped up, and just horrific things. The more that you see that stuff, there is a hardening, there is a callousing, there is a numbness that can happen to your heart and mind.”
“I think the more that we take in these things, let alone be entertained by them—you might not realize, but over time you’re going to become different,” he continued. “Like the Bible literally teaches that what you take in through your eye and what you allow into your mind and your heart, it will come out. Jesus even spoke about it.”
Christians might not see the consequences of their actions right away and therefore conclude, “‘I’m not affected by this,’ but the Bible says that you are,” said Winnings. “It doesn’t mean that you can only watch Christian movies, but I definitely don’t want to watch something that seems to be glorifying and entertaining using demons and gore and blood and all of that stuff.”
“It’s definitely not going to help you get closer to God,” he said.
Winnings said that earlier in his life, he put no restrictions on the type of movies or TV he watched. “I used to watch everything,” he said. “I was in the church and I was watching crazy stuff with my friends. Whatever movie came out—we’d watch the ‘Saw’ movies. We’d watch movies that had sexual content. We didn’t really think of it just because that’s what everybody did.”
One time, one of Winnings’ friends (who was a small group leader) held a “Game of Thrones” watch party. That show “has softcore pornography in it, but they would say, ‘Oh, you know, well, the Bible has suggestive stuff,’” said Winnings. “And I’m like, ‘You really are not trying to use that as a justification right now.’”
God made sex to be between one man and one woman in marriage, “but now we’ve got it on a screen,” said Winnings, who believes Christians should also stay away from content that has “excessive and unnecessary violence or gore,” as well as movies that create fear. “You know, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but we’ll go watch a movie that was created partnering with the spirit of fear to make you afraid, right, or to impress you with something demonic,” he said.
“I know that my flesh wants to go get scared, wants to see these shocking kind of movies,” said Winnings, “but I know that it is not good for my mind, it’s not good for my heart, it’s not going to help me in my walk with the Lord.”
Winnings suggests that Christians who want to discern what content to consume should ask themselves, “Is this helping me in my walk, or is this helping me become more like the world?”
“We’ve just got to reach a point where we’re willing to say, ‘I want to run away from the things of the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,’” he said. “And I want to run towards holiness.’”
Winnings himself reached this point at age 25 after he had a “radical encounter with the Lord.”
“There was a night where I got convicted by the Lord and he spoke to me,” said Winnings. “I had a thought and it was, ‘You’ve never lived for me a day in your life.’ He pointed out my pride and my selfishness, that everything I’d done was for me.”
Winnings realized he had been treating God “like a genie” to get what he wanted in life, whether that was a house, job, or education. “After that,” Winnings said, “I began to read the Bible and I noticed that my heart was changed. My mind was different.”
“So that just led me on a journey of trying to really clean up the things that I take in,” he explained.
On the Promise Keepers website, Winnings notes that the ministry’s “legacy is built upon decades of empowering men to live boldly in Christ, leading with integrity, and strengthening their families, churches, and communities.”
He told ChurchLeaders that Promise Keepers recently launched an app through which men can connect with one another and which also has a number of resources in it.
The ministry is also planning a number of events this year. Winnings will be doing a college tour “prove me wrong style,” where he will make statements such as, “America needs godly men,” and ask the students to prove him wrong.
Promise Keepers is also holding three men’s conferences this year in Yakima, Washington; Kansas City, Kansas; and Atlanta, respectively. To learn more, visit the Promise Keepers website.
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I don’t go to the movies anyway so I’m safe. I hate gore and violence movies. Never seen the fascination with slasher movies.
I watched the trailer. It’s actually about football, but not really.
It’s demonic if you know what you are looking for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccmQETThJgs
Holy money. If you cannot see the demonic in that clip you are blind as a bat spiritually.
Reminded me of the movie “They Live”.
Yikes.
I hate when people use excuses like this: “he was making a big deal out of simply watching a movie”
As if all movies are the same.
Did he see the movie “Sinners”? Would be curious to know his thoughts!
Holy molely. Moley.. moley. Moley.
Did he see the movie “Sinners”?
Holy Moly! Please excuse the expression!
Read a review of “Sinners” today, think it was in “Tablet”, pretty positive review, sounds interesting!
No. Not all movies are the same but I would steer clean away from this one. Wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole.
Thanks! reading now.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/sinners-film-review
As a Christian, you’re protected from demons. All they can do is whisper in your ear. You can also look at this movie as a warning.
So I did see “Sinners” …I guess the reviewer proves that you can project whatever you want onto it meaning wise. It’s vague enough. I found it watchable but not that deep or inspired or anything.
Agree... looks stupid also. Horror films are all into gross-out and weird magic plots now. No suspense, no believable plots, nothing.
Too many good films out there from the past that you can never see them all to waste time on this.
I’ve not heard of that one.
Looks like a modern gross-out foul mouth version of going down to the crossroads to sell your soul to be the best guitar player.
Tired old concept.
They live wasn’t demons. It was aliens. And a fairly good message... and no gross out.
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Song by
Charlie Daniels
The Devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal
He was in a bind, ‘cause he was way behind, he was willing to make a deal
When he came across this young man sawing on a fiddle and playing it hot
And the Devil jumped up on a hickory stump, said, “Boy, let me tell you what
You probably didn’t even know it, but I’m a fiddle player too
And if you care to take a dare, I’ll make a bet with you
Now you play pretty good, fiddle boy, but give the Devil his due
I’ll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, I think I’m better than you”
The boy said, “My name’s Johnny, and it might be a sin
But I’ll take your bet, you’re gonna regret, ‘cause I’m the best there’s ever been”
Johnny risen up your bow and play your fiddle hard
‘Cause hell’s broke loose in Georgia and the Devil deals the cards
And if you win, you’ll get this shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose, the Devil gets your soul
The Devil opened up his case, and he said, “I’ll start this show”
When fire flew from his fingertips as he rosined up his bow
And he pulled the bow across the strings, and it made an evil hiss
Then a band of demons joined in, and it sounded something like this
But when the Devil finished, Johnny said, “You know you’re pretty good old son
But you just flap down in that chair right there, I’m gonna show you how it’s done”
Fire on the mountain, run, boys, run
The Devil’s in the house of the rising sun
Chicken in the bread-pan, picking out dough
Granny, does your dog bite? No, child, no
Well, that old Devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat’
And he laid that golden fiddle down on the ground at Johnny’s feet
Johnny said, “Devil, come on back if you ever want to try again
I done told you once, you son of a gun, I’m the best there’s ever been
Trailer looked ignert. Saving Private Ryan meets Poltergeist.
Those demon movies don’t work on me, since I belong to Jesus, a demon can’t do anything to me. No Exorcist, no Poltergeist, none of that baloney.
The Omen series was interesting since it tried to follow Revelations and imagined how that Anti-Christ could unfold.
Really, a decent horror movie without a demon cheat is hard to pull off.
I always hated slasher films too.
God’s people should not open the door to filth.
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.
Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
Matthew 12:43-45
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